


Those Birthday Blues

by cafephan



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Birthday, First Kiss, Fluff, Getting Together, teenage!phan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-11
Updated: 2015-06-11
Packaged: 2018-04-03 23:08:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4118091
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cafephan/pseuds/cafephan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After being let down by everyone else for his birthday dinner, Dan is downheartened but Phil is determined to cheer him up and make it a birthday to remember.</p>
<p>(It sounds sad but the title doesn't reflect it, it's super fluffy and ends happily!!)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Those Birthday Blues

“Sir, will the rest of your party be attending?” the waiter asked as he stood behind one of the vacant chairs, and Dan threw his phone onto the table and placed his head in his hands.

Phil coughed, getting the waiter’s attention, and made a cut-throat motion, silently saying _he doesn’t need to be reminded of it, thankyou._ The waiter nodded in understanding and walked away, glancing sympathetically over his shoulder occasionally to the table booked for eight but only seating two.

“So, um, I guess Louise cancelled too?” Phil asked quietly, and Dan groaned before his arms collapsed and his head collided with the table, head nodding slowly.

“Says she’s broke” he replied, voice heavily muffled due to his positioning.

“This is a fucking disaster” Dan stated as he lifted his head up and rubbed his eyes, making them a more prominent shade of red.

“What about Zoe and Joe?” Phil enquired, getting the inevitable questions out of the way first.

“Their dad’s working so they apparently couldn’t get lifts both here and back” Dan replied solemnly, rearranging his cutlery slightly to take his mind off the subject at hand.

“Jack?”

“Visiting his grandparents somewhere or other” every explanation caused Dan’s voice to go deeper and be delivered thicker, and Phil noticed his best friend’s far too frequent swallowing.

“Caspar?”

“Grounded”

“Carrie?”

“Same as Louise”

Dan then buried his head in his hands again, and every so often Phil would hear muffled sobs, which tugged at his heartstrings in the worst possible way.

“Your menus” the waiter whispered as he returned and placed two menus in front of Phil, whom smiled gratefully but told the waiter their orders without needing to look – he could speak for Dan easily, this meal was all he had been able to talk about for over a month.

As the waiter left once again Phil diverted his attention back to Dan, who hadn’t changed positions, only now he had sagged further in his chair and the occasional leaked sob would be louder.

“Dan” Phil sighed as he shuffled down the seats to be beside Dan, and gently took hold of one of his arms and placed it on the table, revealing Dan in his broken state.

“Why, Phil? I know they can’t help it, but why today? I booked this a month in advance and they knew how excited I was for this” his voice was strained and borderline hoarse, and he looked for comfort in his best friend with tear-filled eyes, many of which brimmed over.

“I know, Dan. I know” Phil soothed as Dan fell into his chest, breathing erratically in an attempt to calm down and keep his sobs somewhat under control, and Phil wrapped his arms around him.

Other diners in the restaurant were beginning to take notice of the (nearly) eighteen year old brunet sobbing at the head of an otherwise empty table, and the other boy holding him close and speaking softly in his ear. Even some of the waiters had put off tending to tables to watch the scene unfold. At one point Phil noticed and was about to do something about it, but Dan was who he should solely be focusing on.

As Dan began to shake, Phil held him closer and rubbed circles into his back, and then caught sight of something outside which made a smile form on his face and his eyes brighten.

“Come on, let’s get some fresh air” Phil spoke softly and as Dan lifted his head from Phil’s chest he rubbed his eyes again and simply nodded, not having enough energy to put up a fight anymore.

Phil made sure to walk behind Dan as they made their way out, and smiled at the waiters as they passed, and made sure to whisper “let us know when the food’s ready” to theirs, and he nodded as he walked into the kitchen.

As soon as they reached the entrance/exit of the restaurant Dan leaned against the stone pillar and began inhaling the cold air as if his life depended on it, and upon hearing a non-corresponding number of exhales Phil ran in front of him and smiled widely, which caused Dan to stare in confusion.

“This isn’t what I meant, come on” Phil smiled as he jumped down the steps and began walking across the car park towards the back of the restaurant, but noticed Dan wasn’t following suit.

He immediately ran back towards the other boy, whose mouth was pressed into a thin line and tears were again forming in his eyes.

“My legs feel like jelly, everything’s going wrong” he shook his head and let out a bitter chuckle, followed by a choked sob.

Without thinking of the implications or potential formulated opinions, Phil took hold of Dan’s hand and gently led him down the steps, careful to make sure his legs didn’t give way, and they strolled side by side to the back of the restaurant, the only sound interrupting the tranquillity of the moment being the seldom sob from Dan, lower in volume than before, which made Phil smile slightly, knowing he must be doing something right.

As they turned the corner, Dan’s eyes widened, and Phil turned his attention to his best friend, who whispered _wow_ whilst staring in awe _,_ which Phil would have otherwise missed.

They were stood in front of a playground, boxed inbetween tall hedges which were all trimmed in fairy lights, and trellis’ laced with multi-coloured flowers graced the walls.

“As beautiful as this is, why did you bring me to a children’s playground? I’m eighteen years old” Dan asked, although a little laugh was delivered at the end of the interrogative, which made Phil grin.

“Hold on, hotshot, you weren’t born until eleven thirty at night so you have a good three hours left of adolescence” Phil corrected as he conferred with his watch, and Dan chuckled.

“True,” Dan replied, “But even as a seventeen year old is this not a little below my age range?” he turned to direct his attention to his best friend, who was no longer beside him.

“Phil?” he called, but the response was anything but instantaneous.

“You rang?” a voice asked from the middle of the darkened playground, and Dan fumbled around in his pocket for his phone and turned on the flashlight app before taking steps into the playground, and as soon as he spotted the casted shadow his attention turned to the treehouse, more specifically Phil who was dangling from it and smiling fondly, floppy hair gravitating downwards and hands below his chin making him look just that bit more modelesque.

“Come on, you love treehouses, get up here” he spoke down, and Dan bit his lip before shrugging and beginning to ascend the ladder.

“I do love treehouses” he confirmed in a mumble as he climbed, and Phil helped him up the last rung of the ladder then they were sat cross-legged, opposite each other.

“Why the hell has this damn playground cheered me up so much?” Dan pondered as he looked down at the other apparatus below them, as well as the beautiful outdoor décor they were currently in the midst of.

“Maybe it’s the company, too” Phil added jokingly, but as Dan turned to reply with a sarcastic quip, Phil was digging around in his backpack, and making a pile of objects on his lap.

Dan waited patiently until he had finished, and as soon as Phil placed his backpack against the wall he clapped his hands together excitedly.

“Right, here’s the time we’ve been waiting for!” he announced before shoving all the objects from his lap onto Dan’s. With the flashlight app still launched Dan lifted his phone over the objects to reveal bright wrapping paper, some repeatedly having ‘eighteen’ written in unusual fonts, some having ‘birthday’ scribbled all over them, and others just boasting fluorescent colours, which Phil had written _‘to match your colourful personality… okay they didn’t have any black’_ onto.

“Fucking hell, how many presents, Phil?” Dan asked in disbelief as he turned off the app and placed his phone back into his pocket, and Phil shrugged.

“It’s a momentous occasion” he spoke confidently, which didn’t help Dan’s unjustified guilt in knowing how excessively overboard Phil always went on birthdays, and how much he’d probably spent.

“Open the card first” he insisted as he placed an envelope on top of the pile of presents on Dan’s lap.

In the dim light provided by a nearby lamppost, Dan could see his name on the envelope as well as a sketch of some kind.

“Just so you know it’s from me” Phil explained as he pointed to the sketch, which he told Dan was a (badly drawn) lion, and also telling him he’d probably want his torch on again to read the contents.

He obliged, and handed Phil his phone whilst he opened the envelope, a smile spreading across his face just from seeing his best friend’s scrawly handwriting all over both sides of the card.

“You’ve written me a novel, how sweet” Dan teased, and Phil blushed before telling Dan to shut up and read, which he did. It was only a matter of two paragraphs before he was blushing himself.

By the end of reading the passage Dan was close to tears, and as he lifted his head to meet Phil’s gaze, both boys were biting their lips, and Dan launched forward to wrap his best friend in an unbreakable hug, attempting to pack as much emotion and thankfulness into it as possible.

“Thankyou, so much” he whispered, and Phil squeezed him tighter.

As they broke their embrace, Phil insisted that Dan began opening his presents, and it was a happily agreed to suggestion.

Every present had some kind of emotional backstory that proved just how well Phil knew Dan, and with every explanation to the purpose of purchasing the present, Dan felt all the more grateful that he had Phil in his life, and how fucked he’d be without him.

“What’s this one?” Dan asked curiously as he picked up an extremely thin present, which seemed to crinkle as he lifted it.

“That’s, uh, the one I think you’ll like least. I didn’t actually know whether or not to give it to you” Phil stuttered on his words and gushed out the sentence in a speedy flurry, and afterwards bit his lip and diverted his stare to the floor rather than at Dan, which was odd in itself.

“I’m one hundred and ten percent sure I’ll love it, whatever it is” Dan assured him, and Phil mumbled a ‘yeah, we’ll see’ in response, which only hurried the process of opening the gift.

More of Phil’s handwriting was uncovered, but this time in a much more formal style than the normally scrawly displays on the card and gift tags, and there was a lot more of it. Without even a second thought Dan began reading, and temporarily forgot about how anxious Phil was about this particular present.

A few minutes later, after having read the letter front and back (twice) Dan looked back up at Phil, who was playing with his hands whilst forcing an interest in staring at the wooden floor.

He took one of Phil’s hands in his own to stop the fussing, and he felt Phil tense upon realising Dan had finished reading.

“Do you mean that?” Dan asked quietly, potentially the most important question he’d asked in an incredibly long time.

Phil nodded and opened his mouth to speak but no words came out, so he swallowed and tried again. “Of course I do, I wouldn’t mess around when it comes to stuff like this. I just thought you should know since we’re going to different universities in the autumn and we won’t be seeing each other every day anymore but-“

He was cut off by their first kiss, soft and sweet, but overwhelmingly joyful, as both boys were now sure that their feelings were reciprocal, after harbouring them for years.

“You’ve had no idea how long I’ve wanted that to happen” Phil whispered once they (albeit reluctantly broke apart) and Dan smiled.

“Me too” both boys’ pitch and volume was extremely low for a reason none was too sure of.

“Let’s do it again?” Dan suggested, then squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head upon reflecting on his wording which sounded far too demanding.

“Someone’s a little insistent” Phil chuckled, and Dan opened his eyes and smirked, having his answer ready.

“It’s my birthday, and people are supposed to cater for the birthday person’s wishes” he quipped, and Phil nodded.

“You’ve got me there” he replied before they kissed again, this time with a little more passion, which steadily increased with every passing second.

“It’s funny how this birthday which was the worst might just be the best I’ve ever had” Dan mused as he laid his head on Phil’s lap, and Phil played with his hair.

With a warm and fuzzy feeling in his stomach, Phil leaned his head down to kiss Dan once again, gently and sweetly, and left his lips ghosting above Dan’s.

“Happy birthday, Dan”

**Author's Note:**

> I couldn't let Dan's birthday go by without commemorating it some way, so here have this minimally edited pile of fluff I wrote in one go oops
> 
> Phan blog; cafephan.tumblr.com


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